Travis Jones, Ravens set for clash against Kansas City in American Football Conference Championship
Baltimore Ravens defensive lineman Travis Jones is the most recent Husky to be drafted into the NFL, with the franchise selecting him in the third round of last year’s draft. The run-stuffing nose tackle finished the regular season with 20 tackles and 1.5 sacks as he and the first-place Ravens get ready for a clash against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs on Sunday.
Ex-UConn forward Tyrese Martin scores 19, corrals 14 rebounds in loss to Rio Grande Valley
Former Connecticut forward Tyrese Martin continues to compete for a consistent stint on an NBA roster following his second-round NBA Draft selection in 2022. The Allentown, Pennsylvania native spent the majority of his rookie season on the Atlanta Hawks G-League roster before being signed by the Minnesota Timberwolves this season. Martin has produced solid numbers in the G-League with the Iowa Wolves this season, averaging 19.2 points and 8 rebounds on 47% shooting from the field. On Tuesday, Martin scored 19 points alongside 14 rebounds in the Wolves’ 124-120 loss to Rio Grande Valley.
Former UConn guard Christian Vital puts up impressive numbers in the Poland-OBL league
As the state of Connecticut, basketball has risen from the brink of irrelevancy in the American Athletic Conference back to the top of the NCAA mountain in the Big East. Naturally, it can be easy to forget some of the players that produced but never got a chance to compete in March during the Huskies’ rebuilding period. One of those players was 6-foot-1 combo guard Christian Vital.
As a native of Queens Village, New York, he was the lowest touted recruit in Kevin Ollie’s 2016 recruiting class, one that included McDonald’s All-American Alterique Gilbert, Juwan Durham (No. 53 in ESPN100), Vance Jackson (No. 79 in ESPN100) and Mamadou Diarra (No. 94 in ESPN100). Yet, Vital scored over 700 points, more than the rest of the recruiting class combined, in his time with the Huskies.
While he certainly wasn’t here for the prettiest days in program history, Vital continued to improve every season and finished his time at UConn with 13.7 points and 5.2 rebounds across 127 career games before pursuing a professional career overseas. In his first season with Legia Warszawa in the Poland-OBL league, the former Connecticut guard leads his team in scoring with 18 points per game. Vital previously bounced around the G-League before heading to Poland to continue his career.